Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, gave Joseph
H. Lewis
his first
break to make a classier picture than his previous
low-budget ones.
When
he saw the early rushes of the film, he elevated "My
Name Is
Julia
Ross" from a 10-day "B" to an 18-day "A"
picture.

Though not original in motif, nevertheless, this
film is a
beauty,
it is one that is able through its visualizations to
strike a fresh
chord.
It is noted for its brooding atmosphere shots and its
classical noir
camera
work. In one such shot, the heroine is seen forlornly
looking out of
windows
with bars on them. The film is also particularly
noteworthy for the
fine
performances of its stars: Nina Foch as Julia Ross,
Dame May Whitty as
Mrs. Hughes, and George Macready as Ralph Hughes.

Warning: spoilers throughout.

Julia Ross is an American who came to London to see
a
doctor for
her illness. She might or might not have a boyfriend
in Dennis Bruce
(Varno),
as that relationship is unclear. The two met and
exchange pleasantries,
and plan to meet again.

Julia needs money, as she owes her landlady three
weeks
back rent.
She has just gone to an employment agency and after
being questioned by
a Miss Sparkes (Bolster) about having no family or
friends in London,
she
is hired as a live-in secretary for Mrs. Hughes.

Julia departs that night to go to her new residence
and
leaves a
note to Dennis, and also leaves the back rent with the
cleaning lady
(Harrington).
When Dennis comes by to see her, he is surprised that
she is not there
and that the cleaning lady tells him nothing as she
plans to keep the
rent
money after ripping up Julia's note.

The suspense builds as Julia wakes up in a Cornwall
mansion
that
looks out at the sea, and the camera pans completely
around her strange
room. She is told that she just got released from a
mental institution
and is married to Ralph, Mrs. Hughes' son. Julia
realizes that she has
been drugged last night and brought here from London,
but can't explain
this to the maid, Alice (Queenie), who comes from the
village and is
not
part of Mrs. Hughes' scheme. When Julia tells her she
is not crazy and
just wants to get out of here, the maid is puzzled at
what to do.

Meanwhile, Dennis senses something is wrong by her
unexplained absence
and when he returns to Julia's boarding house he
confronts the cleaning
lady and gets her to admit that Julia left him a note.
When he goes to
the employment agency, he is told they moved out in
the night and left
no forwarding address.

Julia tries to escape, but finds she is blocked by a
high
wall around
the house and a locked gate in front. She makes
another attempt to
escape
in the vicar's car, but he falls for Mrs. Hughes'
explanation that
she's
mentally ill and dutifully returns her to Ralph.

Ralph is a rather frightening character, often
whittling
intensely
away with his knife. Julia pumps Ralph by
surreptitiously questioning
him
and learns that she is supposedly his wife Marian. She
overhears a
conversation
between Ralph and his mother about how they plan to
kill her and make
it
look like a suicide, and substitute her body for the
real Marian. She
had
found out that Ralph married Marian for money and had
lied about his
financial
circumstances and when she slapped him, the
quick-tempered Ralph went
berserk
and knifed her to death -- dumping her body out to
sea.

Julia fights desperately to save her life, figuring
her
best chance
is to get word to Dennis. She leaves a letter out in
the open in her
room
that is addressed to Dennis about Mrs. Hughes' plans
to kill her. The
foxy
Mrs. Hughes discovers that letter and tells her son to
drive Marian
into
town and let her post the letter she just switched.
Julia is able to
empty
that phony letter out the car window and substitute
her real letter,
which
Ralph lets her post.

But when Julia hears that they plan to murder her
right
away, she
fakes taking poison and demands to see a doctor. Mrs.
Hughes cleverly
gets
her butler, Peters (Mudie), whom she keeps on the job
by blackmailing
him,
to act as a doctor. Julia is fooled into thinking that
he is really a
doctor
and tells him about the letter she sent Dennis.

Mrs. Hughes sends Peters to Dennis' house to
retrieve the
letter
but when he steals it from under the nose of Dennis'
landlady, she
spots
him and has him arrested. The police are able to get
it out of him what
Mrs. Hughes plans to do to Julia, as they set a trap
for Ralph back in
Cornwall.

The last scene has Dennis and Julia riding away to
be
married, as
she tells him before they kiss "that the next time I
ask for a job,
I'll
ask for their references." The result is a pretty good
suspense story
and
the beginning of Lewis's illustrious career in
directing a better type
of a film.